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These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.

Broken Base: The split between "Dylan the protest singer" and "Dylan the rockstar" is legendary.

It is easy to forget that the outcry over his conversion to Christianity, with the first tour unexpectedly switching to an all gospel format with no pre-conversion songs and forty-minute onstage lectures, was probably a bigger break even than the "going electric."

Covered Up: All too often (this list could take its own page), with Jimi Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower" being the most prominent example, and it's often considered to be *better* than Dylan's version. Dylan himself seems to think so since he apparently now plays the song in Hendrix's style in live performances.

Critical Dissonance: The much-reviled Self Portrait hit #1 in the UK and #4 in the US, and generally has a better reputation in the Dylan fandom than among critics note Though there were some positive reappraisals in the wake of The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait. Along with the Base Breaker status of being his first Christian album, Slow Train Coming had mixed reviews but was a Top 5 hit on both sides of the Atlantic. On the other hand, Infidels and Oh Mercy were both hailed by critics as returns-to-form but couldn't even crack the Top 20.

Epic Riff: Very short opening samples of songs like "The Times They Are a-Changin'", "Like a Rolling Stone", "Lay Lady Lay", "All Along the Watchtower", or "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" are more than enough for listeners to identify.

Not as well-known, but 1980's "Solid Rock" is probably the purest example of this in his catalogue.

He Lampshades this in "Sitting On a Barbed-Wire Fence": "I know you're gonna think this song is just a riff."

Growing the Beard: "Blowin' In the Wind" marks the start of his truly original, thoughtful songwriting.

After the ill-received Self Portrait (allegedly supposed to be bad) New Morning and to a much greater extent Blood on the Tracks were seen as a sort of re-growing of the beard. Likewise, Time Out Of Mind saw a big shift in Dylan's style and was seen as a comeback after an inconsistent period in the 80s and early 90s, this one seems to have stuck as the subsequent albums, save the oddball, uncharacteristic charity cover album Christmas In The Heart, have been extremely well received.

Hilarious in Hindsight: The numbers 12 and 35, as in "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35", when multiplied, produce a certain number which in the 1990s rose to prominence within the stoner subculture.

The line "Even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked" in "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" from Bringing It All Back Home gets a huge cheer from the audience on the 1974 live album Before The Flood.

You can get an extra chuckle from the one-eyed midget bit in "Ballad of a Thin Man" if you picture Bushwick Bill in the role.

Ho Yay: "Ballad of a Thin Man" (see the Ho Yay page for specific examples in the song)

Seasonal Rot: Varies from person to person and most people find at least one song they like on even the least liked Dylan albums. The least loved period of Dylan's work seems to be from the 80s (though most of the albums have some group that appreciates them, especially Oh Mercy). That said, Self Portrait, Dylan, Saved and Down In The Groove seem to be seen as his least rewarding albums. Dylan probably has it worst though, it was compiled from outtakes, had no input from Bob himself and has never even been released as a standalone CD in the US (it was released on CD in Europe for a short while, and also included in the Complete Columbia Albums box set).

When they first came out Dylan's Christian albums received a lot of outrage but people's perception of them, especially Slow Train Coming, has mellowed out over time.

When he switched from electric to country music for a couple of years, fans were not happy either. Ditto when he converted to Christianity and would only play his then-recent Gospel songs in concert for a while, totally abandoning any of his pre-Gospel work. Those who aren't diehard fans, who don't follow his work very closely, often have this reaction to his newer music (specifically his new, more gravelly, growly voice), and this applies double for when such people go to his concerts: questions of why he plays keyboard all or almost all of the entire time, and not his guitar, abound.

Even before "going electric", Dylan faced criticism from the folk community for ditching protest songs in favor of a more impressionistic, surreal type of lyricism.

Vindicated by History: Many of the above examples ended up getting high praise from both critics and fans years later - often, curiously enough, coinciding with the releases of the corresponding Bootleg Series releases.

Wangst: The narrator of "Idiot Wind" spends the majority of the song engaging in metaphorical wangst, before brilliantly reversing it in the final lines.

What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?: Just about everything Bob Dylan ever wrote. It doesn't even seem to matter what he says in interviews about what a song does or doesn't mean (although more often than not now he just avoids those sorts of questions altogether).

The Bob never answered those questions; he's just more subtle now. Ed Bradley asked him in the 2000s if his latest album was a new departure, and Bob ran Bradley into the dirt with a story about how an old jazzman showed him this "mathematical chord progression" that emotionally effected the listener every time. Back in 1965, some (even more) hapless reporter asked Bob about his "message" (captured on camera in Dont Look Back) eliciting the scathing reply:

"What's my message?" Bob seizes a mercury arc light from the coffee table. "'Keep a cool head and always carry a light bulb!'"

Or the Playboy interview by Nat Hentoff: Bob ended up editing all his answers into surrealistic evasions, with Hentoff's cooperation. (Allowing the subject to edit his answers is SOP at The Paris Review, interestingly. But not like that.)

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